Clayton Community Church sits on Rockford Avenue in the heart of Clayton, Missouri, a small city surrounded by the larger St. Louis metropolitan area. For more than five decades the congregation has gathered there with a simple, persistent aim: to spread the good news that God has come to save through His Son Jesus, and to walk with others as they grow in faith. The church describes itself as a non-denominational body shaped by evangelical convictions and an unusual blend of Jewish-mission heritage, contemporary worship, and expository Bible teaching.
From a Bank's Courtesy Room to a Building of Their Own
Clayton Community Church began in September 1973 in the courtesy room of a bank in Clayton. The catalyst was a couple, Wayne and Carolyn Carson, who had been sent to St. Louis by the Midwest Messianic Center for Jewish mission work. Wayne had been trained in New York by Moishe Rosen, who later founded Jews for Jesus, learning cross-cultural evangelism in a season when the young movement was developing its creative outreach methods. The Carsons brought that bold enthusiasm to St. Louis.
The church's first major ministry was a Thursday night youth meeting called Kibbutz, where electric guitars and drums drew a mix of high-school-age hippies and straight-laced kids. Every week a clear, exciting gospel presentation was given. Over a hundred young people eventually went on to Florida Bible College from that St. Louis Kibbutz, and thousands more heard the good news there.
As new believers outgrew the capacity of existing churches, Wayne Carson sensed a call to plant a new congregation. He was joined by John and Margaret Hancock, who started a spin-off youth ministry to the south, and Paul Bennett, a Ford executive who began a northern county Kibbutz. The three men became the first pastors of Clayton Community Church, and from the start a plurality-of-elders model shaped how the church led itself. That structure was meant to develop lay leadership, encourage mutual accountability, and keep the body from becoming static.
For its first two decades the church deliberately avoided owning a building, channeling resources instead into missions, literature, staff salaries, and benevolence. In 1995, just two months after the congregation moved into its first owned building, Wayne Carson stepped down from the pastorate and publicly confessed to serious past sin. God used the shared project of the new building to keep the church unified through the trial. After nearly three years, the church reinstalled Wayne as a pastor in 1997. Clayton Community Church has continued to multiply, giving rise to daughter churches including North County Community Church and West County Bible Church, and has supported church planting around the world.
What the Church Believes
The church's Statement of Faith lays out ten essential doctrines. The Bible, in its original documents, is the inspired Word of God, without error in its original statements. There is one God, eternally existent, Creator of heaven and earth, one in essence and three in personality. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man; because He was infinite and without sin, His death on the cross was the total payment for the sins of the world, He rose bodily from the dead, and He is now seated at God's right hand.
The Holy Spirit seals and indwells every believer from the moment of salvation. People are saved by God's mercy through faith apart from human works. The church is the universal company of redeemed people; water baptism and the Lord's Supper are symbols to the world, not works for salvation. The church's existence does not nullify God's promise to Israel.
Every child of God possesses eternal life and cannot lose salvation, though by sin a believer can lose fellowship, joy, testimony, power, and future rewards. Heaven and Hell are real, eternal conscious states. Repentance means a change of mind and is necessary for salvation; a change of conduct should follow but is not itself a requirement for salvation.
Clayton Community Church also describes itself, in the language of three biblical images, as a Commissioned Company of Disciple-Makers, a Koinonia Community of Christlike Care, and a Construction Center for Coaching and Counseling. The congregation seeks to extend the gospel that gave it life, to resemble the first church in Acts 2 that devoted itself to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, and to equip every member for ministry by speaking the truth in love.
Sunday Worship at 10:30
The Sunday morning Worship & Equipping Service runs from 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and is held in person at 2501 Rockford Avenue and broadcast by Zoom. The worship style is a blend of contemporary praise and worship music with occasional hymns, led by a talented team of musicians who serve through their love for the Lord and their musical skill. Every service centers on an expository, biblically focused message that seeks to make clear the meaning of the original authors and to apply it to individual and church life.
The church invites visitors to come as they are. Dress runs the gamut from t-shirts to business casual, but the staff and congregation care far more about meeting new people than about what they wear. Children's programming is offered for newborns through fifth grade, so families can worship knowing their kids are being taught the Bible in age-appropriate ways.
Questions before visiting are welcomed. Pastor Matthew Selay can be reached at 314-922-3737 or matthewselay@gmail.com.
Tuesday Nights: Prayer, the Lord's Table, and the Word
Two regular Tuesday gatherings round out the week. From 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., the church meets for Prayer and the Lord's Supper, presently on Zoom. An hour later, at 7:00 p.m., Jack Scharr leads a verse-by-verse study called Through the Bible, also on Zoom. These midweek meetings have long served as the connective tissue between Sunday worship and the everyday work of ministry for members scattered across the St. Louis region.
Beit Chesed Messianic Congregation
One of the most distinctive features of Clayton Community Church is the Beit Chesed Messianic Congregation that meets in its building on the 2nd and 4th Saturday mornings of each month. Beit Chesed - Hebrew for "house of loving kindness" - is a fellowship of Jews and others with a heart to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Jesus the Messiah in a Jewish way. It relocated to the Clayton Community Church building in 2010.
Shabbat services follow the pattern of the weekly Parsha, reading the Torah, Haftarah (Prophets), and Brit Hadasha (New Testament) portions together. The music blends contemporary and Messianic worship songs. On the last Friday of the month, a Shabbat Potluck gathers everyone around a shared table.
Beit Chesed exists to communicate that one can be Jewish and believe in Jesus. The congregation frames its mission around the conviction that God has neither forgotten His people nor His promises, and it welcomes anyone curious about Jewish faith in Messiah. Pastor Jake Rosen and his wife Jeanne help lead Beit Chesed, and Gregory Lowe coordinates the mailing list for upcoming events.
Reaching the City, the Campus, and the Nations
From its earliest days, Clayton Community Church has been defined by creative, "out of the fortress" outreach. The original Kibbutz meeting transformed into an urban youth ministry called Jubilee, which seeks to meet the needs of body, soul, and spirit of inner-city young people and their families. Pastor Emeritus Charlie Bethel has invested more than three decades in that work and continues to lead it from his post-retirement perch as a carpenter who, like Jesus, "speaks in parables."
Through International Students, Inc. (ISI), the church welcomes international students from nearby universities, hosting English clubs, seasonal holiday meals that introduce the church body to other cultures, and one-on-one discipleship.
Short-term missions have long been part of the church's DNA. Global Missions Fellowship (GMF) organizes teams to work alongside national churches around the world, with additional partnerships through YWAM and other agencies. Past mission updates have come from Joy Bulus in Nigeria and from Mark and Sofie Stillpass, who are engaged in "Discipling the Nations" work.
The church also supports a small group of ministries devoted to Jewish evangelism and biblical education: Jews for Jesus, Chosen People Ministries, the IMetMessiah.com testimony site (a partnership between ONE FOR ISRAEL in Netanya and Chosen People Ministries), and Brookes Bible College, founded in 1909 and named for James H. Brookes, pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.
Leadership: A Plurality of Pastors
Clayton Community Church continues the plurality-of-elders pattern set by its founding pastors. The current lead pastor is Matthew Selay, who is married to Brenda and is a father of two. His life verse, Matthew 16:24, sums up the church's purpose: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Other pastors include Ed Harris and Paul Terbrock. Jake Rosen, born in France and long-serving in the St. Louis area, is now a pastor emeritus. Joshua Clutterham, who joined the pastoral team in February 2019 and was also a professor and academic dean at Brookes Bible College, passed from this life into the arms of his Savior on January 18, 2022; his expository sermons through the Gospel of Mark remain available in the church's archive.
The deacon board includes Jack Scharr and Steven Sittser, non-staff members who serve alongside the elders in the practical life of the church.
Clayton Kids, Music, and Small Groups
Children's ministry, branded as Clayton Kids, offers fun, engaging lessons from the Bible designed for young learners from the nursery through fifth grade. Volunteers are always needed; Pastor Matthew coordinates the team.
The music and worship ministry is similarly open to new members. Singers, instrumentalists, and sound-board operators are invited to inquire with one of the music team leaders about joining this weekly rotation of service.
Beyond the formal Tuesday gatherings, small groups meet around the city and online for prayer, Bible study, and shared life. Discipling and small groups are central to the church's understanding of how the great commission gets accomplished in everyday settings.
Sermons and Teaching
Clayton Community Church maintains a deep well of expository teaching. The sermons archive goes back to at least 2014 and is searchable by Scripture, topic, series, and speaker. Pastors and guests have walked verse by verse through the Gospels of Mark and John, the Upper Room Discourse, Acts, Philippians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Joshua, Isaiah, Psalms, Ruth, Lamentations, and more.
Notable series include "The Church and Its Mission," a ten-part topical study through selected Scriptures; "When Crisis Hits," a 2020 series that addressed fear, worry, and gospel hope during the coronavirus pandemic; "The Law of Moses on the Heart of Jesus," an extended walk through Mark 2 and 3; and "Marriage to the Glory of God," a three-part study of Ephesians 5. Holiday sermons cover Advent, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Palm Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, and New Year.
Recorded messages are available on Vimeo, YouTube, and SoundCloud (under cccsermons), with audio downloads offered through the church's own sermon pages.
Giving and Getting Connected
Clayton Community Church supports its ministry through tithes and offerings. Gifts can be made by check (made out to "Clayton Community Church" and mailed to 2501 Rockford Ave, St. Louis, MO 63144), by text message (text "Give" to 314-310-5262), or online through the church's giving page. The congregation points to 2 Corinthians 9:7 as its posture: "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
For those wanting to take a next step, the church outlines three doors: explore faith, get connected, or serve. The worship team and Clayton Kids both welcome volunteers, and visitors are always welcome to drop in.
A Place at the Table
From its origin in a bank courtesy room to its present home on Rockford Avenue, Clayton Community Church has tried to remain what it calls a "come as you are" church. Theologically evangelical, ethnically and generationally diverse, marked by expository preaching and a Jewish-rooted missionary heartbeat, the congregation seeks to be a place for worship and praise, a place for learning, a place for service, and a place for enrichment. Whether someone is wondering about who God is or already following Jesus and wants to grow deeper, the church extends the same invitation it has carried since 1973: come as you are.